Valerie: Bye bye, boys!Max: Have fun storming the castle!Valerie: [to Max] Think it will work?Max: It would take a miracle.Max and Valerie: [waving] Buh-bye!(Princess Bride)

And, no, no miracle required. Seeming miraculous though.

Storming Dun Baldar with Msaker follows a series of long battles. The seeming endless pushes to take Stormpike Graveyard. Crossing the bridge. Alliance defenders constantly harrassing us. Assaulting the Aid Station. Seemingly endless quantities of NPC’s to wade through. And then the Marshals. They hit real hard too. And then there’s Van. By the time we reach him most of the horde is there, and, horde-like, we pummel him with 30+ it seems.

Alliance on Drek is altogether different. We rode to Snowfall and took it. Rode up to Galv’s. No defenders. So we move in and kill him. Iceblood Graveyard is right there, so let’s take that! Ooh, some defenders. More likely they were just the last to leave the tunnel. Hey, I admit I died out there on the push. I’m level 51 and I’m wearing +Agi gear. I’m killed pretty quickly. But, I resurrect at Snowfall and head south to Frostwolf.

Now keep in mind this is all backwards for me. For months now I’ve been seeing this through Horde eyes: Red is good, we push north. So, now, I’m Alliance: Blue is good, we rush south. We race south. In a race, Alliance wins. I’ve said that before. It still applies.

Anyway I approach Frostwolf Graveyard and see we’ve killed the guards and are mopping up strays.

I ride through the gate and cut right, riding up the hill, no NPC’s at all!, and then into the tower and then up the hill between the towers. The Archers are gone. The place is clear and I see the flag at the Relief Hut is gray. There’s no more than 10 of us. And they start pulling Warlords, one at a time. I hang back and shoot arrows and these guys are killed quick. Marshals don’t go down that fast, even with more attacking. At least that’s how it seems to me. And then we move in. There’s still only like 10 of us. Yeah, Drek is killing us bouncing around like some pinball with cleavers and we just rez at the Relief Hut and rejoin the battle. And this constant attention to him, and no defense, and he’s soon dead. Alliance wins.

Where were the rest of us?? Half appear to be down south in Frostwolf, the other half are still up north, defending Stormpike. Woot.

That was one battle.

The next battle, which we won, was a little harder. There were actual defenders taking part this time. Oh, we still raced to Snowfall, killed Galv, took Iceblood Graveyard, and Frostwolf Graveyard. This time though the Horde kept up some defense. I remember riding, unstopped, up into the high compound. And that’s where I see red names. I send in my cat and begin tabbing for enemies. Dang. I’m hit with something, hurt, and my cat’s dead. Aw. So, I’m thinking “Where can I go to safely heal and revive my pet? The Keep of course. The enemy won’t dare follow me in. Oh, look, the path’s clear too.” So I run for the keep and breath a sigh of relief. I’m all alone. I’ll just move to the center and get busy healing. “Hello. What’s this?” All the names are red in here! Orcs. ORCS! OH Noooo….. Well, needless to say, I don’t make it. I was thinking like Msaker when I made that bonehead move. 🙂

But, yada yada yada, we win again.

Alliance do race. And we do so mostly unopposed. And we defend. And our base is imminently defensible. And it’s so much easier to race when you’re unopposed. Blizzard must really hate horde.

(WSG and AB are still Horde Crush Alliance though. Read somewhere that there must be some advantage to the horde side. I don’t see it. I know the Stables are 99.99% of the time taken first. Then the Farm. Then … it’s up in the air for the rest. Seriously, where’s the advantage? We have Shamans and the Alliance Paladins? If that’s the case, then Blizzard, in giving the Alliance Paladins must really hate Horde! 🙂

Msaker is a good, hearty, tank. I can gear him up easily. Afterall, anyone running an instance NEEDS a tank.

They don’t need a Hunter though. I think getting Aracarius his PvP gear will be easier than getting Msaker’s his. Who knows. It’s all fun.

3 Responses to

The advantage for Horde in AB seems to be that the triangle of Farm, Lumber Mill, and Blacksmith is easier to defend than Stables, Mine, Blacksmith. This is due to the LM being the high ground, and you can see what action is taking place at the Farm and BS from up there. The mine on the other hand has no visibility to any other flag. I read somewhere that the LM is about 15 yards closer to the Horde, which gives them a small advantage grabbing that critical high ground.